propriate occasion, and there is thus the widest scope for the exercise of judgement and taste in "suiting the action to the word" and "making the sound an echo to the sense." The gravity of some persons is irresistibly comic, and the mirth of others is perfectly saddening. Some entreat as if they were commanding, others inform as if they were inquiring. Sometimes we hear a magnificent organ of voice. that meanders through its gamut with a total absence of definite purpose; and at other times we hear a thin, illformed voice coupled with a fine appreciation of sense. A proper training would, in such cases, discipline the unprincipled voice and energise the feeble one. The varieties of what may be called elocutionary raw material are endless, and the processes of manufacture require to be modified accordingly. So, too, the finished product is almost as various as the raw material; depending, as it must in a great degree, upon original mental and physical endowments. Uniformity of result is neither possible nor desirable. This much, however, is attainable in common by all:-A knowledge of what contributes to effectiveness and of what is opposed to it; of "how to do" the former, and "how not to do" the latter; so that we may, at least, improve the powers we possess and turn them to good account. The advantages of effective elocution may be assumed to be universally appreciated; but, strangely, the need of study to attain effectiveness requires to be vindicated against the objections of those who confound elocution with elocutionary Systems. Archbishop Whately, for instance, in treating of Delivery in his Work on Rhetoric has, unfortunately, given sanction to the detractions of prejudice. In his just abhorrence of the mechanical style of reading, inculcated by the sentential rules of elocutionary Systems, he has carried his denunciation to the absurd length of contemning all attempts at methodical instruction. The sum of his advice is "be natural;" but he argues as if the acceptance of the precept would secure its application. He says, in effect, "Do not study how to be natural; do not attempt to discover the principles of nature; avoid all theorising as to the means; but simply be natural." This is, no doubt, the aspiration of every speaker, even of those who most miserably fail in their public efforts. All would be natural if they only knew how to attain that end. But the modus operandi is necessarily an Art, and must be studied as such. Art is not opposed to Nature, as the dictum of Archbishop Whately would seem to imply; and the Art of Elocution is but the application of principles which Science has deduced from Nature. Shakespeare expresses the true relation; his immediate reference is to the florist's art, but the truth he utters is of universal applicability: "Nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean. This is an art VIII. THE TONES OF SPEECH. The tones of speech are slides or flexions of the voice, to a higher or lower than the commencing pitch. The pitch of the tone is its accented part, and the sliding termination is unaccented. The most extended inflexion does not necessarily rise higher or fall lower than a shorter inflexion; but, in proportion to its emphasis, the tone is pitched lower for a rise and higher for a fall. The two vocal flexions are susceptible of a very great amount of variety: (I) in the extent to which they rise or fall—which may be through the interval of a semitone or less, or through that of an octave, or more; (II) in the commencing pitch of the movement - which may be at any point within the compass of the voice. Thus a mere succession of ups and downs is relieved from any monotony of repetition by an endless diversity of pitch and range. Another vocal principle — universally made use of, but instinctively, and without recognition - constitutes what may be called the Melody of speech: namely, that an inflexion, of whatever kind, is preceded by a tone which is high or low in opposition to the pitch of the inflexion. The effect of this preparatory opposition of tone is to furnish the ear with a measure of the height or depth of the inflective pitch, and to increase the apparent amount of its variety. This principle may be graphically represented thus: 1. Rising inflexion with high pitch: preparatory tone (.) low. ""high. " low 66 Applying this principle to the pronunciation of a word, something of the variety attainable by its means will be readily seen. The "preparatory" tone is, of course, itself inflected, and so the variety is farther increased as the curve of the latter is turned towards, or from, the accented inflexion. In this way, each simple inflexion yields four modes of pronouncing a single word. The emphatic force of the utterance is progressively stronger from the first to the last of the series. Thus : The combination of the two vocal movements on a single syllabic impulse produces a pair of compound inflexions which exhibit the same inherent expressiveness. Simple tones accompany direct and simple language; compound tones accompany language which means more or less than the words themselves express. The contrasted tones in the compound suggest a contrast in sense, between the word used and some other word implied. Each compound in flexion adds to the expressiveness of its concluding slide an inferential suggestion in accordance with its commencing slide. Thus, a compound rise (which commences with a fall) involves a positive inference; and a compound fall (which commences with a rise) involves a negative inference; as: Not so....implying....but otherwise. Each of the compound inflexions, like the simple ones, already illustrated, furnishes a series of four modes of pronouncing a single word. The emphatic force progressively increases from the first to the last of the modes. Thus: |